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Sinclair's Bakery - first year

Sinclair's Bakery - first year

Hello Everybody,This week marked the one year anniversary of Sinclair's Bakery here in Belgrade, MT. I thought I would commemorate the event with a picture-post reviewing some of the more significant events of the year. If you're interested in some of the business specifics of how things evolved this past year, ask away and I'll answer here. Enjoy. :)

February/March/April 2013: picking up the new trailer, from the outside looking in, garnishing pastries for a film festival, the winter market (April was also the month that I made this Potato Rolls Video)

What a wonderful retrospective in photos.You have done a magnificent job with your relocation . Your baking looks simply divine. If I ever get to MT you are the first stop ! We will be eating our way across Europe for 2 1/2 months on our bicycles this Summer and I am looking forward to lots of breads and pastries. I can't imagine any would be better than what you are producing. Happy Birthday. Caroline

Thank you for the kind words Caroline! It sounds like you've got a great trip planned for this summer. Perhaps you can make a photo essay here on TFL of the bakeries you stop at and a little bit about them? Anyway, hopefully someday you two will get out here to Montana to stop in.

My plan is to keep a journal and take lots of pics as I have on my other rides. This is the first that my husband has been able to go on so hopefully we will have 2x as many pictures !! We will be in the Netherlands for 3 weeks at the end of the trip ,we used to live there in the 80's. They do sausage and meat stuffed pastries similar to yours. I will definitely get pics and a review for you :) Enjoy the coming Spring. c

Yes, I got the idea for the pastries filled with meat from the Dutch pastries and the sausage filled snacks that they sell everywhere in New Zealand. Long, long ago when I spent some time on the south island of NZ, those sausage treats and DB were my main subsistence :)

It is said that the first year of a new business is the hardest. Congratulations on reaching your one year milestone! May you have many happy years of baking and seeing the joy you create on your customer's faces!

How neatly you've arranged your photos chronologically! You missed the potato soft rolls. I baked your recipe and blogged about it here and my family members fell in love with it. Thanks! Note To self: i have to sell those at the Arts and crafts market.

Happy first anniversary , Mark! We are all happy for you. And keep those videos coming , please.

Just for you - Well, I didn't add a potato rolls photo up there in the OP, but I DID add a link in the Feb/March/April section for the video. :) I must have missed your blog post on the potato rolls, but I will check it out. Yes, you'll have to try those at your market, some people prefer a soft bread over a crusty one, or at least do for certain occasions.

You made the one year Mark! I've been wondering what's been going on with the "Adventures of Mark Sinclair and his Mobile Bakery". Glad you tuned in and laid to rest any anxiety we might have had on your behalf...,

From the looks of it you've adjusted to local market conditions and more importantly to what sells to local taste's - all while preserving high quality standards to maintain the brand.

You may want to add juggling to your mike night ukulele performance - seems you're already good at it.

...although my juggling skills are not exactly up-to-par :) As far as the business goes, I tried not to rush things too much in the beginning, and stuck to what I do best. Fortunately the customers are very supportive here and know a great product when they have one. Word spread quickly and soon enough the reputation was pretty solidified around the area. Because I'm neurotically-obsessive about consistency and quality, the customer base grew (and is growing).

Here's a link to some photos on my bakery FB page. If you sort through there, there are lots of the initial stages of the process and interior photos too.

I've got only convection ovens (2 run on propane, one is electric). The trailer is 8'6" x 24', not including the tongue. It weighs about 10,000 pounds and I use a 3/4 ton pickup to pull it. When it's parked indoors like it is now, I have it plugged into a 220V outlet on a 50A breaker. All of the essentials are on one sub-panel in the trailer, the non-essentials (air conditioner, one of the gas ovens, outdoor GFCI...) are on another 50A sub-panel that I don't need while I'm plugged in. I also have a 20K watt Cummins diesel generator for when I'm not hooked up. Absolutely essential stuff like emergency lights and running water are powered by two batteries that are charged by a solar panel on the roof.

Anyway, if you have any other questions let me know, but I think if you look at the pics, you'll get a good idea.

It's not my formula, method or recipe, so I can't post it. To be honest with you, I'd never mixed or worked with a dough like that before and I'd need more practice to make it come out as well as it did when he and I worked together. Anyway, to give you a visual on how the dough looks and behaves, check out Massimo Bosco's YouTube channel and browse through his videos. He mixes an 85 and 90% hydration dough that look similar to what we did here.

We used the double hydration method for mixing, with 75% of the water in the initial mix and the rest being added on speed 2 over the course of 6 minutes.

This is what the pre-shaping looked like. When Tommaso showed me how to do it like that, my response was, "Uh. What just happened?" :)

The shaping is also completely different than with most other pizzas as can be seen in this video.

One more question. In one of the photo of ths inside trailer i saw that you have this multiple alarm timer color coded... Do you remember where you got that from... Looked everywhere and cannot find it.

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